The aim of any business owner isto grow their business and see it thrive and expand. The larger it gets, the more money – and therefore they – make. It also means that they can employ more people, and be able to take a less prominent role within the company, meaning that their work-lifebalance can be just right. Knowing how to grow your business and having the plan in place to do so right from the start is crucial for success. If you don’t know where you are going or how you are going to get there, you won’t know which decisions to make and which direction to head in when you need to choose. Here are some ways that businesses can expand – take a look to see what might work for you.
New Products And Services
The first thing you might think of if you want to make more money and expand your business is adding new products and services to your range. It may be obvious, butit will also work. The key thing to remember though, is thatit is not as easy as it might seem at first, and it will take some careful through and a real strategy to get it right. You need, to begin with, to determine what products and services your current customers need and want, and what they would pay for them. Thiswill require some customer research. You can do this by speaking to them at the cash register and asking if there is anything else you could sell that they need, for example, or putting a quick and easy questionnaire in their bags for them to complete at home.
If you have an online store rather than a physical one, then an emailed newsletter or questionnaire could work. Or create a poll on your social media pages. Gaining this information is vital because although you might have an idea of what you want to sell,if no one wants to buy it there is no point in attempting it.
Sell More
As well as bringing in new products and services, it’s important not to forget your existing ones. They might be extremely popular, and selling more of them to new customers could easily expand your business. Thisis where you need to have a good marketing campaign – you need to let more people know about whatit is you do. Although this will cost you more than selling new products to existing customers, the importance of gaining new customers is something you can’t ignore.
A good way to gain new customers that won’t cost you too much is referrals. If you have a happy customer, ask them to pass your details around to friends and family, and in return, they can get some kind of discount or coupon. It will only cost you a little, but the return could be huge.
Expand Into New Territories
Thisis, of course, something that physical stores have the slight upper hand in, but every business can do this to a point. For a physical store, opening up a new store in a neighboring town or city, or even in another state, can quickly expand your business, bringing you new customers and ensuring that your reach is a lot greater. This will, of course, cost you money – it’s not cheap to open up a new store, even if your current one is doing well. It might be that your existing store will need to pay for the new one for a little while until it starts to make money. If you can afford to do it, the initial investment should easily be paid back as long as you have chosen the right place to open up another site.
If you have an online business,you can also expand into new territories. The impact may not be as great, but the cost won’t be as high either, so it is perhaps not such a risk. If you have only been selling in your local area (perhaps because you hand deliveryour goods, or you offer a service in people’s homes), then look into ways you could go further. How much would it cost to mail items out? Could you drive another 10 to 20 miles and pick up a lot of new customers that way? Do the calculations and see if it is possible.
Try Investing
If your business is making a profit and you aren’t sure what to do with it, then investment might be a good idea. Rather than the money simply sitting in a bank account and making a little bit of interest now and then, you can use some of it to invest in foreign currencies, bitcoin, precious metals, or even real estate. By diversifying in this way, you can make a good return on your investment, and build your business up in this way. Remember, though, the stock market is risky, and needs to be researched thoroughly and discussed with professionals because you put any money into it. The real estate market is less risky, and might be a better way to invest your money – discover more here.
Sell To A Different Target Market
Although it is usually advocated that you find your target market and stick to it, what would happen if you looked for a second target market? You don’t want to be so blinkered by the fact that you have to sell to one particular group of people that you miss the fact that you could sell to another group in a different way. Having two different advertising campaigns can be tricky to manage, but if you utilize social media and push each campaign out to a different specified market, the rewards you reap could be doubled.
There can be problems with this idea, though, and it is important to bear them in mind. A teenager, for example, won’t want to buy the same clothing or goods that their parents are buying (for the most part). By choosing the wrong target markets that don’t work well together, you could be in danger of losing all your potential customers. Instead, the target markets that you pick should compliment one another. You could choose to target dog owners as well as those who love to be outdoors – both will be out walking, so they have this in common.
